


The Brave and the Strong

by Longlivemystories



Series: Flight Rising [1]
Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Multi, Romance, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 03:26:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21385306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Longlivemystories/pseuds/Longlivemystories
Summary: Hey! I'm doing NaNoWriMo and I'm posting it here as I go! I'm doing a collection of short romance stories for my dragons on Flight Rising. They're all in their humanoid forms in these stories. Have any questions? Message me!
Relationships: Feira/Nomos
Series: Flight Rising [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1541671





	The Brave and the Strong

"Oh! I'm s-so s-sorry!" Nomos sputtered, tensing up and quickly moving five paces away from the much, much taller guard.

The red-headed guard turned slowly to look down at the student mage, brows furrowed, a deep frown creasing her face. Nomos pursed her lips worriedly, eyes wide and nervous.

"I... uhm..." Nomos mumbled quietly, cheeks warming up and lowering her gaze to the ground.

"Hey! Feira! Stop picking on Ren's students! He does that enough as is!" Elspeth laughed, landing down with a thud next to them. "Hey, Nomos," he greeted, folding in his wings. "What brings you all the way out here?"

"E-Elspeth, hi... I er... I was just hoping to c-collect some emetic russula for Ren," she explained, nervously flickering her eyes between Feira and the ground.

"Oh? The Forgotten Caves are a little above your paygrade, don't you think, hun?" he asked, then paused. "Oh! You were hoping to have one of us guards take you!"

"I-If it's too much trouble, I-I can go alone... It's no big deal," Nomos said quickly, wringing her coat.

"No, no, you couldn't do that. The beasts of the caves are more dangerous than people give them credit for. No, Feira can go with you," Elspeth decided.

"And leave my post?" she snorted in response, arms crossed over her chest.

"I'll cover it for you! Lucky for you," Elspeth added. "Go on now, go keep our little mage-in-training safe!"

Feira sneered at him before stomping off.

"You might want to follow her," Elspeth whispered to Nomos. "She's walking to the cave now."

"Oh... th-thank you," she whispered back and quickly followed the other guard, tripping a little over some roots that were protruding from the ground. 

The trip to the caves was filled mostly with silence as Nomos was too nervous to say anything that might piss Feira off enough to make the guard leave her stranded in the middle of no where and Feira just didn't want to talk. Suddenly, Feira stopped and glanced around the area.

"W-What's wrong?" Nomos whispered, nearly bumping into the guard for the hundredth time today.

Feira didn't respond for a moment before her body relaxed somewhat and she continued walking. Nomos glanced around before running after her to catch up. Feira's long strides were hard to keep up with for Nomos, but she dared not complain. They soon entered the infamous caves and Feira finally turned to face Nomos.

"Do not stray far from me," she warned, leaning down a little bit. "Don't make noise. In order to collect your fungai, I have to kill the creatures it lives on. How much do you need?"

"Not a lot... m-maybe two pounds?" Nomos squeaked, shoulders hunching.

"That's at least five beasts," Feira stated. "I'm assuming you have something to carry it in?"

"Right, of course. We can't let them touch our bare skin or we'll be infected," Nomos said, rifling around in her shoulder bag to find an empty container just big enough to hold the two pounds she needed.

Feira nodded and they went further in. Nomos felt a familiar sensation bubbling from Feira and she turned somewhat to see red-orange eyes glowing. She was building her mana, similarily to how her master, Ren did. Nomos had a hard time building her mana right on the spot, normally needing to do some warm up spells that didn't require mana to get going.

The glow from Feira's eyes was offset dramatically by how dark and damp the cave was. Nomos was having an even harder time than usual traversing the uneven path and she almost fell, but was caught by the back of her coat by Feira.

"You may use a small light spell," the guard breathed lowly. "If only so you stop tripping."

Oh, she was pissed. Nomos struggled to stand and then had a hard time focusing on the spell, but finally manager to mak the end of her staff glow gently and it was enough so she could see where she was going. Feira seemed to have no issues guiding herself along the rocks and ragged edges of the wall, not once knicking her skin or tripping. Nomos had to wonder how many times the brawler had been down into the caves.

"Stop."

Nomos halted so fast she almost fell forward, but caught herself on a nearby stalagmite, which she later regreted due to how slimy it felt. The mage wanted to ask what was wrong again, but stopped when she saw the small group of infected salamanders lounging around. They were dying slowly because of the fungai and no longer had the energy to look for food. This behavior shouldn't fool anyone who dared to venture into the cave before although the fungai didn't allow them to eat much, it forced them to fight. Feira crouched down low, letting out a leveling breath as she disappeared in the shadows, eyes no longer glowing.

Although they may be called salamanders, they weren't your every day tiny amphibians. No, they were large, almost twice as long as Feira was tall and large enough to crush her chest should they get a hit in. Nomos held back, lowering the intensity of the glow from her staff, and watched with worry.

The battle was faster than Nomos gave Feira credit for. The guard was swift on her feet, faster than the hunkering lizards and was quick to put them out with a sharp blade and skilled moves. She stood tall amongst the dead bodies and looked to where Nomos was hiding, eyes feirce.

"Collect what you need. There should be more than enough here."

Nomos awkwardly wiggled her way down to where the guard stood and pulled on her gloves to start working. Feira watched her for a moment before keen eyes scaled the area. There only seemed to be one way into the rest of the caves and then the way they came from. That gave her some comfort as she leaned against the cave wall and wiped her blade clean. She'd have to disinfect that later. Feira's least favorite place to be was the caves, but her ability to see in the dark and low lighting made her the perfect person to send down there to fetch anything the mages needed that they couldn't buy at the market. Feira found herself glancing over at Nomos quite a bit and she even cocked her head to the side a little bit as she noticed the mage seemed less afraid, hands not shaking as much and more focused on the task at hand. A small smile relaxed the guard's face at that and she felt a little more at ease than she should have.

Something moved just out of the corner of her eye as she was looking at Nomos and she turned her head just in time to see a fist coming in contact with her face. She was knocked to the ground, blade clattering far away from where she'd landed. Nomos squeaked and quickly stood, whirling around to see the Swiftfoot Slayer standing near where Feira had been.

"Don't move, Killer," hissed a woman's voice. 

The mage dared to glanced up to see a naga assassin climbing to the stalagtites on the ceiling of the cave, blade coming down to rest at Nomos' throat. Feira coughed, drawing Nomos' attention away, but the blade pulled a little tighter to her throat, giving her cause to stay put.

"You've come to slaughter us, have you?" shouted the Swiftfoot, hooves digging at the ground angrily as he made his way over to Feira.

"No, wait!" Nomos exclaimed. "We don't want to harm you! These creatures were infected and were going to infect you, t-too! We're trying to find a cure so no one else has to die to this fungus!"

The assassin glanced at her comrade before looking back down to Nomos.

"How do we know you're telling the truth, Dragon?" she snarled.

"I-If you'll allow me to pull out my research book, I-I can show you the logarithms we've already done. W-we're close, we just n-needed more of the parasite," Nomos whimpered, hands up and empty.

Feira started to move, glarting angrily at the centaur as he hovered over her, hoof at the ready to kick her right back down should she try to stand.

"Fine, get the book," the centaur snapped. "But no funny business or we'll be sending your head back to your clan."

Nomos nodded slightly and opened her satchel just enough to pull out her research book. She opened it up to show a picture of the parasite and words written in the dragon's language. Not many beasts understood it, but the assassin apparently did as she was reading over Nomos' shoulder. She also apparently didn't notice Nomos reaching back into her bag until it was too late, until the mage blew some sort of dust in her face as she whirled around, the assassin's blade knicking her throat.

The naga coughed violently, loosing her grip on the ceiling and falling down in a crumpled mess, chest heaving and losing oxygen. The centaur went to help her, but Feira was faster. She kicked out his legs and he fell to the ground. The guard embedded a dagger deep into the Swiftfoot's neck, causing instant death. She whirled around to help Nomos when she walked right into a Corpse Cleaner's pincers. They stabbed right into her stomach and she hissed in pain, grabbing onto the pincers to prevent them from closing and ripping out her insides.

"F-Feira!" Nomos cried, rushing forth.

The guard was losing the fight with the much larger creature until suddenly its head gave way, her discarded sword slicing easily between the armor. Nomos dropped the sword immediately at the same time as the Cleaner's body fell and the mage rushed to Feira, who stumbled backwards, slamming hard into the cave wall. 

"Feira!" 

"F-Feira?"

The guard turned around, then looked down to see the shy mage offering her a small, timid smile. She relaxed somewhat and waited patiently for the mage to continue.

"I uhm... I brought you something..." Nomos said quietly, offering a bag.

Feira accepted it and looked inside. One of the items was in a small tube.

"It's a salve. For your injuries. I know they're healing well and all but this should help with the pain," Nomos explained, mostly looking at the ground. 

The guard slowly nodded before reaching in and pulling out a muffin wrapped up carefully.

"In case you were hungry... I know you spend a lot of time out here, guarding," the shorter woman added sheepishly, fingers interlocked behind her back.

Feira looked between the two items, then down at Nomos.

"Look at me..." 

The mage did so slowly and Feira leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"You can put the salve on me tonight when I'm off my shift," Feira said, putting it back in the bag and tying it to her sword's belt.

Nomos' face warmed quickly, but she nodded and hurriedly left, bringing a hand up to her mouth.


End file.
